M2 growth at record low

The growth of China's broad money supply or M2 slowed to a record-low of 8.9 percent in August, indicating a tightening regulation on off-balance sheet financing, aimed at preventing systemic risk, according to the central bank.

The figure released on Friday was much lower than the market's expectation of 9.1 percent, down from July's 9.2 percent. The growth rate has eased for seven straight months.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, also released the amount of new renminbi loans in August, which surged to 1.09 trillion yuan ($166.72 billion) from 825.5 billion yuan in July, and was larger than the expected volume of around 950 billion yuan.